


Fighting Queen

by pentapus



Category: Books of the Raksura - Martha Wells
Genre: F/M, aiming for some classic tropes, but it's raksura, deadly veteran warrior who grumbles but still tears through the bad guys for the damsel, shy delicate damsel with her inner moral strength, so swap those gender roles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-09
Updated: 2017-08-09
Packaged: 2018-12-13 00:59:59
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,291
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11748816
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pentapus/pseuds/pentapus
Summary: Rain meets one of the fighting queens of the Fringes under less than ideal circumstances.





	Fighting Queen

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Xenadd](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Xenadd/gifts).



“That’s mine -- where did you get it?” 

The arrogance skittered electrically over Rain’s skin, shocking him out of his doze. The stone beneath his feet was warm from the fires, and he had let it lull him into a standing sleep. 

He was surprised to see that there were no other consorts waiting on the plateau. They had all been evacuated. It was only Rain who’d insisted he would wait for the Arbora, Rain with his broken arm and inability to shift. It seemed like a stupidly noble gesture now, but they were his faction and his favorites, and he would see them out himself. 

Around him, the waiting Arbora straightened their postures, half politeness, half defensiveness at whoever had landed behind him. It had to be a queen, of course, but it didn’t occur to Rain to worry. His mother wouldn’t have a sent a queen he didn’t know to get him. 

And then he turned around and saw the queen wasn’t anyone he knew at all. 

She stood in a shaft of sunlight, her scales a blinding gold unmarred by reflections of the fire eating the colony. Her wings looked almost too big for her body, and she had scars, the biggest a thin line across her torso from rib to hip. They weren't so noticeable, but Rain had been looking for them. That was what everyone in the consort bowers said about Indigo Cloud queens -- that every one of them had a scar that could have killed them. 

Indigo Cloud was known for bearing the brunt of the dangers that came with living in the Fringes. It was the reason Wind Sun had called them for aid before any others. They were dangerous, and they would need the favor returned within a generation. There would be no need to worry about how to pay them back.

He picked uneasily at the tightly woven blanket over his shoulders. She said it was hers? She could be lying, though he didn't remember how he'd gotten it. Queens always found a reason to talk to him. He was beautiful enough (and shy enough) to be ‘fit for the Reaches’, after all. It was just -- she really couldn’t think of a better reason?

He met Strike’s questioning look and sighed as though he weren’t worried all -- just so Strike would see it and relax -- before he turned fully to face the queen, lowering his gaze demurely.

The queen was big for someone her age. The modest crest of frills and spines around her head suggested she was much younger than Rain’s mother, but she stood half a head taller than Rain already. She stood with the springy readiness of a fighting queen of the Fringes, which even more than the battle scars marked her as a queen of Indigo Cloud. 

For that reason, Rain was inclined to forgive her for approaching him alone. He was stupidly weak to stories of fighting queens who fought the Fell and the Tath and had no idea how to behave themselves properly inside a court. Though it was difficult to overlook the insult of remaining winged when he couldn't shift. Even if she was here to fly them to safety, she could still have done something to lessen the threat. He _wasn't_ weak for queens who _wanted_ to scare him.

“The blanket is very soft,” Rain said, though it wasn’t particularly, just very soft for a blanket made from animal hair. Rain preferred the softer plant fibers.

The queen sighed. “Not the blanket.” She looked at the heavy bronze bracelet Rain wore on his right wrist. Rain bristled in surprise.

“That definitely isn’t yours,” he said, and then shut his eyes in horror for snapping. 

The queen didn’t bat an eye. “My Arbora made it as a gift to my father.”

Rain was startled into speaking. “For Trill?” 

Her eyes narrowed.

“He was my -- he looked out for me when I left the nurseries, before he went away.” To go to Indigo Cloud, where he had died because Indigo Cloud was a dangerous hellscape. Rain felt heat against his cheek, and remembered that his colony was no safer than Indigo Cloud now. Worse, even. Indigo Cloud seemed to weather every hardship. Rain's colony hadn't weathered the Tath.

He pressed his hand to his mouth and tried to push down the sob he felt crawling up his throat. It wasn't appropriate even if three separate queens had told him he looked becoming when he cried.

“I’ve come to take you to the new colony,” the queen said.

Strike stepped forward.

“No, thank you,” Rain said, eyes on the warm stone beneath his feet.

The queen looked pointedly at his arm. The blanket didn't quite conceal the sling. “I’ve heard you can’t shift.”

“No, thank you.”

“Your colony is on fire,” the queen said dryly.

“We have queens and warriors of our own on their way,” Strike said.

“Why have they left him here undefended?”

The soldiers standing around the platform turned away from watching for Tath to glare at her.

“Aren't _you_ part of his defense?” Strike said.

“He'll be more defended if you let me take him away to the rest of your court.”

“I'm not leaving without my Arbora,” Rain said quietly.

“You're a little idiot,” Strike said, which Rain didn't mind because he knew he was Strike's favorite. “We can climb if we need to.”

“There are Tath on the ground.”

“There are," the queen said, "and more on the way. Your honor guard is delayed dealing with them.”

“I see them,” Chance called from the edge. “Coming out of the bush now.” 

“Damn it,” Strike said. He shot a furious look over the goods still stacked on the high rock platform and the two dozen Arbora waiting for warriors to carry them away far above the ground-dwelling Tath.

The queen looked expectantly at Rain. He clutched his blanket tighter around him. He didn't have the guts to say it out loud again, feeling like he was being childish and stupid. But he knew the Arbora weren't safe here. They were smaller than the Tath, and the Tath could climb well enough to get up here; they'd more than proven that.

The queen held out her hand.

“Go,” Strike said, distracted by the Tath coming out of the trees.

Rain took a shaky step back. 

The queen looked at him for a long moment with a deeply annoyed expression. “Your mother _did_ send me,” she said, aggrieved, but she must have given up on convincing him to leave because she leapt to the edge of the platform before he had a chance to shake his head, his hand over his mouth and tears pricking at the edge of his eyes.

He swallowed down fear. She was leaving them, and he was one more piece of useless trade goods the Arbora were going to have to protect with nowhere to retreat except into the fire at their backs. But he couldn't leave them.

The queen landed next to Strike. She was fully twice his size, talons as long as his hand. Her spines flared out, deadly sharp and sunshine gold. “Take the consort down the East side and follow the river,” she said. “Leave the trade goods for the Tath or your consort's missing honor guard, whichever comes first. We're taking the land route _now_.”

She dropped over the side, a golden blade stooping towards the Tath. Rain stared after her until he heard the Tath start screaming and Strike and Chance came to pull him away towards the river. It was like he'd seen a story come to life, and if any of them lived through this, he was never going to forget it.

**Author's Note:**

> A new years resolution story. 
> 
> I'm so glad someone left a request open enough that I could write Pearl and Rain to fill it. Here's hoping you enjoy this potential first meeting between them, in which Rain nearly bursts into tears several times because he's a _delicate flower_ and Pearl _likes_ that.


End file.
